Aberdeen & District MC Hill Climb

Fintray, 5 Aug 1979

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B20 [72-4] (Bill Lord): To Bob Howlings Racing Team for John Lepp (Altrincham, Cheshire) to race in British Formula Atlantic in 1972. Won at Croft in August and had several other good placings. Last seen in the UK at Oulton Park on 30 September 1972, and then unknown until early 1974 when sold by Howlings to Nelson Todd (Lisburn, Northern Ireland), and raced in Irish Formula Atlantic, winning at Kirkistown in October 1974. To Jim Sherry (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) for a couple of races at Mondello Park in 1975. This must be the "little used" Chevron B20 advertised by Gerry Kinnane in Belfast in June 1976. Raced by Mike Nugent (Cookstown, County Tyrone) a couple of times later that year. Then to Dick Parsons (Dundonald, County Down, Northern Ireland) for 1977, when it was described as a ex-Kinnane. Sold to Tom McMillan in Scotland, then on to Bill Lord for 1978 and used in Scottish hillclimbs, reputedly with a Hart 420R Formula 2 engine, but this seems unlikely. Retained for 1979 and presumably the Chevron B20 with Cosworth FVC engine advertised from Dunfermline, Fife in November 1979.
2. March 772 [3] (Jimmy Jack): New to Norman Dickson, and raced in F2, Shellsport G8 and libre racing in 1977. To Jimmy Jack for 1978, and used in libre, sprints and hillclimbs, when it was also raced by Charlie Munro, and by Eddie Cheever in an Ingliston libre race. Retained for 1979, when driven by Jack and Munro in speed events again, and also by Andy Barton and Bill Lord on occasion, and used by Jack more rarely in 1980. It was then sold to Tony Brown in Gloucestershire for hillclimbs, but by mid-1981, he had sold it to Stuart Lawson (Kirkliston, Scotland), taking Lawson's ex-Bernard Hunter March 80/81A in trade. Lawson used the 772 in libre racing with a Hart 420R engine at Ingliston in 1981, sharing it with Ted Dzierzek, who drove it in Knockhill events in 1981 and 1982. Subsequent history unknown until it was raced by Christian Fischer in Historic F2 in 2003, when it had been reunited with its BMW engine. Fischer drove it until 2005, when it temporarily disappeared into Switzerland before being bought by Ted Walker and Matthew Watts (both Dursley, Gloucestershire) in 2007. It was raced by Watts in HSCC Historic F2 from 2009 to 2019.
3. Chevron B40 (Bob Leckie): New to KWS Autotechnik for Klaus Ludwig in the BRSCC F2 Trophy at Donington Park in October 1977, where both Autosport and Sport Auto are clear that the car was using a Hart 420R engine, not a BDA-based engine. Believed to be the car raced by Willi Deutsch at the Nürburgring in April 1978, but this remains unclear. Bought from Ludwig by Iain McLaren (Broxburn, Scotland) in damaged form and "painstakingly rebuilt" for libre and Aurora racing in 1978. To Bob Leckie (Aberdeen, Scotland) for hillclimbs and libre in 1979, then Bob Milne (Aberdeen, Scotland) for libre in 1980, then Martin Dunn (Evanton, Scotland) for libre at Ingliston in 1981. Sold next to George Coghill, who fitted the Chevron-Hart with a Lotus Esprit body for Scottish GT racing in 1982 and 1983. The car returned to "unclothed" form in 1985, when Coghill fitted a 3-litre Ford V6 engine for Scottish libre racing, the Hart 420R having blown up. The car had a 1700cc BDA engine in it when Coghill sold it to someone in the north of England, and recalls taking a Vixen in trade. This must be the 1700cc Chevron B40 entered by John McCartney at Harewood in September 1987, then with a 1990cc Hart engine at Harewood in May 1988, but a month later he was running the B53 instead, with a BDG engine. Retained by McCartney until November 1996 when it was sold to Nick Crossley (Sussex). The car is said to have been restored by Foxcraft Engineering in 1995/6. At some point sold by Crossley to John Ruston and Gareth Burnett (Newmarket, Suffolk), and raced by Burnett in Euro F2 and HSCC Derek Bell Trophy races in 2006. Burnett raced it again in the DBT in 2008. Sold in 2018 to Richard George (Marsh Green, Kent), who took it to Paul Fox of Foxcraft again to be rebuilt.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.